North Carolina Bill Criminalizes Drug-Addicted New Moms

Following a path charted by Tennessee, Republicans in the North Carolina Senate have introduced a bill that would jail pregnant women who are addicted to drugs. The “Prenatal Narcotic Drug Use” bill also applies to mothers of newborns addicted to or harmed by illegal drug use. If passed, advocates are concerned that the law would disproportionately affect women of color and those who are poor.

“It’s going to discourage women from seeking out prenatal care,” Lynn Shoemaker of Women AdvaNCe tells Public News Service. “If women are actually criminalized for this and they’re sitting in jail, how is that helpful? How are they going to provide for their families, for their children?” The new bill, S297, doesn’t address Shoemaker’s questions.

Taking a criminal rather than public health approach to drug-addicted pregnant women or new moms is nothing new, as Colorlines gender columnist Miriam Zoila Pérez pointed out last July. Punitive responses go back to the since-debunked “crack baby epidemic” of the late 80s-early 90s.